Sparring with Nick Durandt
I've alway's had a fascination with boxing so I decided to visit Nick Durandt's boxing gym. I wanted to speak to
him specifically because I'd heard he's the most famous boxing trainer in South Africa.
This is where you start the music in your head as you read please. Pumping, thumping, loud music with a very rhythmic beat. Couple this with masses of testosterone and you are in the scene.
Thumping
Some boxers were skipping, some were punching small balls, some were punching bags and some were in the ring. Nick was in a corner putting band around the boxer's hands, and in between doing this and talking to me he'd stop, get verrrrry aggro, and call out something hectically loudly.
None of the boxers spoke to each other except to liaise re gloves and headgear and there were people talking to sweaty, bloody boxers in-between rounds in the ring. I spoke of course. Screamed over the music. To Nick. His manner was interesting. Like I was wasting his time but at the same time wasn't.
The gym
Tashi: Why are you so famous?
Nick: Because of what I've achieved. The champions I've produced over the years.
Tashi: Can you tell me about them please? Gerri Coetzee is one isn't he?
Nick: No, no, no, he's before my time. Sugar Boy Malinga - two-time WBC Champion of the world. The WBC Championship is the most prestigious in the world of boxing. Sugar Boy won it twice under me. I've had numerous world champions. Cassius Malloy, Phillip N'dou, Silence Mabusa - that's just to name a few. I've had the most South African champions as a trainer in this country. I have a total of 53 South African champions that I've produced over 12 years now. Maybe that's why I'm well-known.
Tashi: That's why you're famous.
Nick: I wouldn't say I'm famous. My fighters are famous. That's who I want to be famous. The fighters.
Tashi: All these people who are here now - who are they? Where do they come from?
Nick: Everyone is professional.
*Music changes. Still thumping.*
Moolah
Breeding classy fighters
Tashi: Does this mean they box for money?
Nick: Yes. I have 52 professional fighters. I have the biggest stable in the country.
Tashi: And where do they fight?
Nick: All over the world.
Tashi: Boxing and money is a huge thing.
Nick: You got to be a champion to make money in this business.
Tashi: Is it as corrupt as they say it is? Is there such a thing as "Your ass goes down in the fifth?"
Nick: No, no - it's *bleep!*. It's the biggest load of crap I ever heard. It might have happened in the days of the mafia and that in New York - in those days - but not nowadays. These kids get in the ring to win. Fighters don't take bribes because when they win the money gets better - they win championship titles. Today it's about winning the championship belt. When you win these, money comes after that.
Tashi: The kind of money you're speaking about?
Nick: One thing - I don't discuss fight money with any media. What these guys fight for is their salary - I don't ask the media what they earn as a monthly wage. You got to understand that the Heavyweight Champion Of The World is the highest paid athlete in the world. A fighter has, say, six, seven, eight - eight good years in boxing - becomes a champion, holds the belt for four/five years. His family will never have to work, his kids will never have to work in their lifetime - that's the kinda money that's in boxing. Not in South Africa - but in the world of boxing.
Tashi: What's the money like in South Africa?
Nick: It's okay.
Tashi: Where does it come from? Who pays it? Are there sponsors?
Nick: No, the promoters pay the money.
*I should have asked more here - but was thinking about my next question and didn't. *
Boxers And Bouncers
Harder than it looks
Tashi: How much does boxing have to do with anger?
Nick: None. None.
Tashi: I don't believe that.
Nick: Well then you're asking the wrong person.
Tashi: The reason I think this is because the culture of boxing often comes from people from a place of being angry. Is this not true?
Nick: Nah - *bleep!* man. I'll take you out to supper with 25 boxers and 25 bouncers and you'll see whose got anger. There are kids on the street who want to prove themselves but these kids here don't fight on the street - they fight in the ring. This is about not being put into the sport but about wanting to be in the sport.
Punch Me Please
Nick: The things the guys go through to become champions - nobody outside of boxing will ever understand. You get hit on your nose two hundred times a night and you see what it feels like.
Tashi: Well, I'd like to ask you - I'd very much like to know what it feels like to be punched.
Nick: I'm not allowed that in my gym because you'd probably go to hospital.
Tashi: I would really like to, because the thing is -
Nick: Have you ever had a fight? Has nobody ever punched you?
Tashi: No.
Nick: Ja, well, the adrenalin pumps when you get hit and you don't feel it until after.
Tashi: So you're saying that if you were to give me a punch now I'd feel it a lot more than if I were in a fight.
Nick: You wouldn't feel it because I'd probably knock you out.
Tashi: You can knock me out if you want.
Mike Tyson
Nick: It's not an anger sport. It's a sport. You know, yes - you've had guys who've made press headlines like Mike Tyson but you know what - not everyone's a bank robber, not everyone's a rapist.
Tashi: What is your opinion of Mike Tyson?
Nick: The thing about Tyson is he's a boy in a man's body. He's been abused over the years by management and a lot of people have stolen from him and that's why I think you see that anger coming through him a lot of the times.
The Two B's
Tashi: How did you become a boxer?
Nick: I wasn't. I was a bouncer.
Tashi: Ah!!! You're the one you were talking about. So you have anger then, do you?
Nick: Nah, nah, nah. I trained in a boxing gym when I was young but I never fought.
Tashi: How can you know what it's about then?
Nick: I've been in the gym's. I've travelled the world. I've done my apprentice with the best in the world.
Smack
Tashi: What about the idea that boxing is too violent?
Nick: It's crap, man. Rugby is violent. Have you seen the anger that comes out in a rugby game?!
Tashi: Isn't this just about beating each other up though?
Nick: It's about winning. It's about earning money. These people are fighting for a living. Go and find me a guy who has a house on Clifton whose made his money in the ring. He's made his money somewhere else. These guys only know how to do this. There are a lot of kids who've never been educated in their lives. They can make a living from this. This is what this is. It's an enterprise that gives people - from the lower end of the market; communities that don't have money - an opportunity to make money. These guys are prepared to bleed to earn money.
Boxlesses
Tashi: What about women?
Nick: I don't believe in women boxing. Women's bodies weren't designed to box.
Tashi: Doesn't Muhammad Ali's daughter box?
Nick: Ja, but it's farce. She can fight a bit - but you know, women's boxing is not for me. I'd never train a woman fighter. It's a gimmick. It adds something extra to the pot.
Tashi: Do you think that that's a sexist comment?
Nick: No. It's not a sexist comment. I'm married to a woman. I wouldn't want to see my wife fighting.
Damage
Tashi: What about the fact that Muhammad Ali went all funny?
Nick: That's also *bleep!*. Muhammad Ali's health - his Parkinson's disease - was only brought on earlier by boxing. He would have had it either/or. Whether he was a boxer or not. Boxing only enhanced Muhammad Ali's disease to come quicker.
Tashi: So there are no fatal injuries?
Nick: There's fatal injuries right outside my doorstep here. You know, when your number's called your life is called. You go home tonight, you have an accident, you get shot, you get hijacked. That's life. Michael Schumacher shouldn't be racing because that's fatal. That guy wipes out and he's dead.
Thumping Again
Tashi: Why do they bounce up and down like that?
Nick: I dunno. Why does the sun go down at night?
Tashi: Is it about energy?
Nick: Nah - it's about not being hit. Bopping and weaving. *Calls out to a boxer* "Take his *bleep!* head off!!"
Rocky
Tashi: How much do they train?
Nick: Six hours a day. They start at 04h30 in the morning. They start again at 11h00 in the morning and then again at 15h00 in the afternoon.
Tashi: Do they eat special food like Rocky did? Those raw egg things.
Nick: You know - I watch Rocky today and it's completely a joke to watch in terms of what really happens. They're great motivational movies - the guy from nowhere comes up - and that doesn't really happen in the game. You can't just take a kid from nowhere and give him a shot at the World Title fight. They have to fight world ranked fighters to get that opportunity.
Boxing is negotiation from the fighters to the managers to the trainers to the promoters to the television networks. This game is not for ballerina's. It's a hard game. It's dog eats dog. It's managers stealing other fighters from other gyms, promoters trying get the services of other fighters from other promoters. Your finger has to be on the pulse here. If you take it off for even one moment..... You snooze. You lose. This is a *bleep!* hard game.
Stairway to heaven
Tashi: Why did you choose it?
Nick: I love this sport. I love the game. I live the game, I be the game.
Tashi: What's the best part of it?
Nick: Success. Winning. That's the bottom line. Money I'm not worried about. That comes with success. My main aim is to get in that ring with a fighter, take a kid from nothing and make him something. That's where I get my success. When some of these kids started here they had nothing and now they have homes and cars and bank accounts. That's the ultimate success.
Tashi: What skills do boxers need?
Nick: Not everybody is talented. It's technique, it's skill, it's desire, it's determination. Boxing is like chess. You got to move before the next man. Make your move and the man with the best moves is the man who wins.
Ends
So that was it and I left down the green steps.